Ever since the advent of the Gregorian calendar, there occurs a numeric phenomenon where the day, month and year are the same number within the first 12 years of each century. With all of the fuss over 12-12-12 and last year, 11-11-11 and so on, I can’t help but wonder if people lost their damned minds at the turn of the last century or the century before that? Or were people just too busy trying to survive that this numerical anomaly went by unnoticed. Do we really have so much free time on our hands that we have assigned meaning to the meaningless? The truly pathetic thing is that the meaning is different depending on who you ask.
Contrary to popular belief, numbers are not mystical or magical. Numbers were invented by man to count, label and measure. They are a tool we use to try to find order amid chaos. Calendars have been changed numerous times since the beginning of recorded time, so what we think is 12-12-12, actually isn’t 12-12-12 if you refer to the Islamic calendar, the Hebrew calendar or the Hindu calendar or even one of the first calendars used: the Early Roman calendar.
So why all the fuss about a man-made system to measure time? The one thing we know for sure about mankind is that we make mistakes… constantly, so why put so much faith into something that is so subjective?
A little fear can be healthy. A little faith is dangerous.
May I suggest that faith is born of fear. Without crippling fear of the unknown, we would not jump so quickly to put faith in an answer, even a subjective or nonsensical answer (yes I am comparing this numerical hokum to faith in religion/god). Or perhaps we are just so bored that we need something to look forward to… even if that something is the end of the world. If only we used our fear to fuel our curiosity instead of to control the masses or to excuse stupidity, we might be further along the evolutionary ladder than to think that just because the Gregorian calendar says it’s December 12, 2012 that it is a special day, full of more possibilities than any other day.
That’s a great way to look at the whole “end of the world” thing. I’m pretty sure some people really are that bored, looking forward to our extinction. I might as well be saying that the 7th of January 2013 is a special day, the day where all oceans evaporate. Do I need a fucking reason? Cheers.
I’d love your thoughts on this video, if and when you have time to watch it( it’s 41 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3hVc2hWYxg
Well said- as usual!
I feel like the only way out of fear is a simple faith that something like love is more powerful than I am, and then carrying on with life. Crippling fear hasn’t served me well 😉 and believe me, I put my all into it.
Love, on the other hand, has.
Don’t get me started on love 😉 Actually if you want to know what I think about love, read this http://windupmyskirt.com/2012/01/19/the-love-delusion/
And be sure to click the link under “chemical reaction”
Didn’t say ‘romance’ and didn’t mean it either.
Neither did I.